Front passenger door handle problem.

Here is a story about my door handle, a Skoda dealership and my dealings with Skoda UK Customer Services. It is probably a boring story, and I only relate it for the benefit of those poor souls who have absolutely nothing better to do than to read it. I don't really need any advice on the subject, thanks anyway, as I don't intend to waste any more of my life on it after this.

Here is the letter I sent to SUKCS on their official "contact us" form. I would point out that when I mention that the dealership is 100 miles away, that isn't an hour or so on the sort of lovely motorway that you privileged southerners enjoy - it's three and a half hours of not very relaxing driving, each way, and it would be at least once to get the problem diagnosed, and again once the parts were in!

"Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to you about the front passenger door handle on my Skoda Superb.

In early April last year, the outside door handle seized in the open position, and I could only open the door from inside the car. On May 8th I took the car to Arnold Clark Inverness to have a new engine start button fitted under warranty, and to have the door handle fixed. Their Mastertech said that the handle wasn't covered by the warranty (even though it would be an MOT failure issue), but that he had removed the handle cap and done something, and explained that you have to operate the handle in a specific way - this doesn't seem necessary for any of the other door handles.

This "fix" lasted only a few days, before the handle seized again, so on September 2nd I took the car to a local independent garage where they ordered a new "door handle carrier", involving the fitting of a "support" and bolt and producing a bill of over £150. This worked until May of this year, when the handle seized again, so on July 9th the same garage supplied, painted and fitted a new outer door handle, door handle cap and inner door lock, at a cost of over £400. I hope this replacement lasts better, but I would point out that the driver's door handle gets far more use, and so far that has operated perfectly!

While I appreciate that you may not look kindly on my use of an independent garage for this work, I would like to say that the Skoda dealership in Inverness was the nearest to my home at 100 miles away, that they didn't repair the car properly, and that I understand they are not re-opening after Covid 19, meaning that the nearest dealership is now in Paisley - 140 miles from home.

This is not an isolated incident, judging from owners' forums on the internet, and it doesn't seem fair that I have spent over £550 on repairing a fault which was an MOT failure issue which occurred within the original 3-year warranty period, and which wasn't repaired properly by the Skoda dealership in the first instance, so I am asking if Skoda will cover my costs on this?"

I sent this letter on 16th July 2020. On 9th September, having received no response at all, I phoned SUKCS and spoke to someone who took my phone number and said I would get a call from one of their managers. It turned out that this person hadn't written the number down correctly, and a couple of weeks later they found my email address in their records and sent a message asking me to phone them. I did, and was informed that they had no record of my letter! Having then spent some time explaining the whole story to this "manager", I was informed that nothing would be considered without me taking the car to be diagnosed by an official Skoda dealer.

So, basically, I had a problem with the car (MOT failure point within the original warranty period) which I had to pay for myself. I could pay a Skoda dealer who couldn't fix it, or an independent who did. Guess who I'll stick with in future!

I would at least like to add my name to the list of those who have thanked SportlineBri for his illustrated explanation of how to get the handle back in it's correct position - I made my tool from the wire handle of a bulldog clip!

Best wishes to all for the best Christmas that you can safely manage.